Hey Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I hope your day was blessed and you felt the nearness of God. I had a good day on campus and Trey, Ty and Cameron prayed to receive Jesus today.

When I got to school I felt compelled to go the PE building and I began to head that way. No one I passed heading that direction wanted to talk. When I arrived in the PE lounge Ty and Trey were sitting at a table together. Trey was dark with small features, more Indian than African and a 2 inch afro. He wore grey sweats and a blue hoodie with some white lettering on the front. Ty looked like a football player; hair cut short on the sides afro high on top, big eyes more traditional African American full features. He had a blue t-shirt on, a warm face. I asked them if they wanted to do a student survey. They weren’t sure so I asked them if they knew how to get to heaven. Trey said something like, “Well, I go to church. I don’t really know.” I asked if they wanted to know what the Bible said so they’d know how to get to Heaven and they agreed. When I asked Trey what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “‘Cause I don’t want to go to Hell.” Ty said, “‘Cause I learned from my past experiences.” Trey said he hoped the likelihood he would go to Heaven was 100% but he said, “Statistically it’s probably 50.” Ty thought he had a 70% chance. They both seem to know Jesus had died for their sins, Ty remembered right away and Trey after Ty spoke up and it reminded him. They both listened to the Gospel and wanted to be forgiven for their sins. I asked Trey first and he said yes and then Ty, who then said yes. So I explained that there was a prayer they could pray to be forgiven and talked them through it saying they could pray it silently I asked Ty sitting closest to me if he would want to do it and he said, “Yeah,” and Trey then said the same thing. They each prayed to receive Jesus. I offered to write the notes and verses I had put in Ty’s booklet but Trey didn’t seem to want his marked up. I explained the likelihood they would get into heaven, now trusting in the righteousness of Jesus to be their righteousness was 100%. I gave them each 20 Things God Can’t Do and wrote their name and the date and “forgiven” in the front along with “Just ask” and By the Spirit’s power” having explained the Christian life was living “Inside Out”. Trey didn’t want a Bible study but Ty took one. I shook each of their hands and gave them a quiz on what they would say if someone asked them why God should let them into Heaven. “Because I have faith in Jesus.” Trey responded and Ty agreed saying, “He died for me.” I bumped into Trey in the hall later and gave him a hug, and he grinned and I said I’d see him around.

Cameron was in the MAC lounge on the second floor at a counter height table. He had on a purple Vikings football hoodie and cargo shorts. He had about a 2 weeks’ worth of beard he was trying out, curly blonde hair. Not a big guy, slight build. He wanted to be a marching band director for High School, so he was studying Music Education. When I asked him what he would say to God to get into Heaven he said, “Oh boy, that’s a good question.” He thought a few moments and said, “I did what I could to benefit the community.” He said his parents had gone to a couple of Lutheran churches and then kind of stopped after the 4th child was born into the family and they never got back in the habit. He thought he had a 75/20 chance of going to Heaven, I guess the other 5% was a mystery. He knew Jesus had died to pay for our sins and listened to the Gospel closely. When I asked him if he would want to be forgiven he said, “Hmm that’s a good question and thinking about it he said that “This version” of the Gospel (I had presented) seemed like God was waiting on him for a choice. I said that that wasn’t really what the booklet was talking about; it is just telling you how you are saved not what is behind it. I said it’s kind of like science. Science gives a description. I then explained how he might tell me a girl friend had broken up with him saying something like, “She writes you a note that says, we are over, we are not dating anymore. She puts it in an envelope and walks to your house and rings your door bell. You open the door and let her in. She kisses you on the cheek and says we are broken up for good; I never want to see you again. Then she walks out of the house and your life forever.” But I explained this does not tell me why she broke up with you and you may never know. Just like science it describes things but does not tell you why they happen.  He said he kinda went by faith and would want power and knowledge and to be enlightened but at the same time he wondered how that was possible. Then I showed him a verse I never read to students in the Booklet. Rev. 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I said the interpretation of this verse here is that God is pursuing you. He might send people or things into your life to tell you that He wants to forgive you and live inside you. He might have sent me to you today, I feel like He sends me to people sometimes. Your choice makes a difference and you have to make it but it is a mystery somewhat how God’s sovereignty and power work with our will. Jesus says no one comes to me except the Father Himself shall draw them (john 6:44). So it is God’s work. I explained living “Inside Out” with the line on the back page, “Your walk with Christ depends on what you allow Him to do, in and through you empowered by the Holy Spirit, not what you do for Him through self effort.” He said he was kinda convinced by my saying that. I explained the power of God making it possible for us to do good things in the world by His Spirit. He said he had been reading Descartes’ on the argument from the infinite, that everything had to come from something equal or greater than what it was. I said I knew that argument and that evolutionary theory had come to an impasse as mutations seem to wreck things to make them survive, genetic information is lost in mutations and for something to evolve into a higher life form there needs to be additional information. Information is neither energy nor matter, we don’t really know what it is but it is real and it must increase for a lower life form to evolve into something more complex. It seems that that never happens.  He seemed persuaded. I said if he wanted to be forgiven and have God live inside him there was a prayer he could pray and I talked him through it reading, “Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?” “Yes,” he said after a moment of thought smiling softly. So I said he could pray it silently and he said, “OK.” He prayed then to receive Jesus. I gave him a Bible Study and a Bible as he did not have one of his own. I wrote his name and the date and forgiven in the front of the Bible and showed him the “Where to Turn” section and the “Messianic Passages”. I also gave him 20 Things God Can’t Do and told him I would keep him in my prayers which he was grateful for. “Thanks so much for talking with me,” I said getting up to go. He smiled and shook my hand and as I walked away called out after me, “Have a good day.” “Thanks.” I hollered back. And I headed out.

So thanks for your prayers for the ministry and for evangelism today if you had a chance, God blessed me as always.

In Him,

Bob